Pandiya Nadu
Melchior Dow
Sivakumar is a meek person who owns a cellphone sales and service center in Madurai with his friend and sidekick Ganesan. Siva's father Kalyanasundaram is a retired government employee who shows much care on Siva's elder brother Nagarajan, an honest government officer. Simmakkal Ravi is a notorious gangster who rules Madurai with an iron fist. Sethu is Siva's best friend who helps him woo Malar by beating up men who were harassing her. Later, Sethu learns that Ravi's chief henchman Bharani has been harassing his ex-lover Amudha. Sethu soon stabs Bharani and flees with Amudha from Madurai on Siva's advice.
Through Ganesan, Siva provides hacked smartphones to Ravi and his assistant in order to track their calls and monitors Ravi's activities, biding his time for the right moment. Siva plans to kill Ravi, who leaves for Coonoor to meet his minister friend. When Siva prepares to attack, the hit squad attacks Ravi in the same spot. As Ravi fights back, Siva runs in to try and kill Ravi, but is seen masked by Bharani. Ravi kills all of the hit squad members and finds out about the person who hired them. Ravi forces the hit squad organizer to make his client arrive at the bus stand on the pretext of returning the money.
Ravi and his gang wait at the bus stand to capture and kill the person. To retrieve his money, Kalyanasundaram arrives at the bus stand and is chased after by Ravi's gang. Kalyanasundaram falls unconscious due to the health problems until a masked Siva defeats Ravi's men and takes him to the hospital. Siva and Ganesan, who had retrieved the money, learns about Kalyanasundaram lamenting about his foiled plan to finish Ravi. Siva continues to follow Ravi and forms a plan with Ganesan to kill him at a temple festival. Suspecting a member of the general public, Ravi has the police commissioner round up all male family members of civilians whom he had killed to discover the killer.
Siva learns that Ravi is at a meeting in a theatre, where he goes to the theatre bathroom to kill Ravi despite Ganesan's advice. However, Siva is evicted by one of Ravi's men and leaves his sickle in the stall. Bharani recognises Siva from their past encounters, while Ravi notices the sickle and chases after Siva. Siva escapes and meets Amudha, who tells him that Sethu is also killed by Ravi. After Siva told Sethu to leave, the cops under Ravi's payroll captured Sethu and handed him over to Ravi. Bharani killed Sethu right in front of Amudha. Enraged at Sethu"s death, Siva kills Bharani and Ravi's henchmen, where he finally confronts Ravi.
Siva and Ravi have a tense and fierce combat, where Siva mortally wounds Ravi. Siva takes Ravi into a well and leaves him there to his death, telling him that he represents all the innocent people whom Ravi has killed. The news mentions about Ravi's partially-decomposed body being discovered after Siva gives an anonymous tip to the police. Siva secretly tells Kalyanasundaram about his role in all the events, where Kalyanasundaram embraces his son with joy and takes a walk with his grandson.
In March 2013, Vishal announced that he is going to work with Suseenthiran in a film tipped to be a commercial action entertainer, and the crew will be more or less the same that worked in Suseenthiran's Naan Mahaan Alla, which was of the same genre.[2] After that, Suseenthiran confirmed that Vishal will act and also produce this movie under his home banner Vishal Film Factory.[3] After some days, they announced the title as Pandianadu and the cast and crew. Lakshmi Menon was selected to play the love interest of Vishal, and D. Imman was signed to score the music.[4] Vikranth was cast in a pivotal role along with Soori and Aaranya Kaandam fame Guru Somasundaram.[5] Bharathiraja was signed to play Vishal's father in the film.[6] Shooting started on 15 May 2013 in parts of Madurai, Virudhunagar, Coonoor, Pollachi and Tiruchirappalli.[7][8][9] The major shooting took place in Virudhunagar for nearly 20 days. Further action plots were taken in the town. It was the third film to be shot in Virudhunagar, after Veyil and Renigunta. The film was said to be shot in 4K resolution, making it the second Tamil film after Sivaji.[10]
The soundtrack for Pandiya Naadu was composed by D. Imman collaborating with Suseenthiran and Vishal, for the first time.[11] The audio rights were acquired by Think Music. A single track "Othakada Othakada Machaan" was released on 22 September 2013, at the cultural event held at Loyola Engineering College in Chennai.[12] The audio was launched on 13 October 2013,[13] at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai, with the presence of the film's cast and crew.[14]
Pandya Nadu or Pandi Nadu is a geographical region comprising the southern part of the present day state of Tamil Nadu. The region is bounded on its West by the Venad/Ay Nadu, Northeast by the Chola Nadu and Northwest by the Kongu Nadu. It comprises the present-day districts of Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, parts of Pudukkottai and Dindigul.[1][2]
The region was the principal historic seat of the Pandya dynasty who ruled it intermittently and with differing capacities at least from the 4th century BCE to 1759 CE.[3] The political capital of the region is the city of Madurai with Korkai serving as a secondary capital and the principal port city during the early historic period.[4]
After the end of the Sangam age in the third century BCE, the region came under of the occupation of the Kalabhras who continued to possess it till the Pandyan reconquest led by Kadungon who founded the First Pandyan Empire. The Medieval Cholas conquered the region from the Pandyas in the 10th century and renamed it the Rajaraja Pandimandalam. The region became independent once again with the rise of the Second Pandyan Empire which continued to be the dominant power in Tamil Nadu until the invasions of the Delhi Sultanates. The result of which was the formation of the independent Madurai Sultanate with the Pandya rulers pushed southwards from the Vaigai belt. The Madurai Sultanate was then overthrown by the Vijayanagara Prince, Kumara Kampana, and the region was reinstated to the later Pandyas as vassals and as one of the rajyams under the Vijayanagara Empire. After the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century, the Nayaks of Madurai declared independence and ruled the region until the conquest of the Nawab of Carnatic which was then followed shortly by the British annexation in the 18th century into the Madras Presidency.[4]
Pandya Nadu is named after the Pandya dynasty which was one of the three crowned dynasties of ancient Tamilakam. As to the etymology of the word Pandya or Pandi, scholars have not a consensual answer but the exact meaning of the word may refer to the Old Tamil words for Ploughing or Bull or Old/Ancient.[5]
The exact borders to the region of Pandya Nadu is not well-defined and was probably different during different historical period. But rough approximations to the boundary can be found in the poem Pandimandala Sathakam.[6] Mandala Sathakams are collections of poems written about specific geographical regions in Tamil, dating variously from 1000s to 1700s CE.
From this poem, which was written by Madurai Ayyamperumal Asiriyar, it can be inferred that at the time of his authorship, the Pandimandalam or Pandya Nadu extended South of River Vellar (River South Vellar, present-day Pudukottai district), North of Kumari Sea (Indian Ocean), West of Sethu (present-day Ramanathapuram district) and East of Dindigul (City in present-day Dindigul district) & Karaikadu (Village in present-day Kanniyakumari district).[7]
Pandya Nadu was one of the earliest territorial divisions of the ancient Tamilakam, the home of the Tamil people at least from the 6th century BCE. The region is home to many neolithic and megalithic settlements. The archaeological sites of Adichanallur and Korkai are one of the oldest Iron Age settlements in Tamil Nadu with radiocarbon dating assigning the locations to the 9th century BCE. Other historical sites like Keezhadi have been dated to 6th century BCE[8] by the ongoing excavations by the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department.
Between the 3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE, the region was ruled the Sangam Pandyas with Madurai and Korkai as their capitals. The period produced the beautiful Tamil Sangam literatures which provides a clear window to the life of Tamil people of the age. Under the Sangam Pandyan rule, the region served as one of richest locations in India with its extensive involvement in maritime trades with Southeast Asia and the Western world. The Pandyan pearls, fished from the Gulf of Mannar and the Pearl Coast, were found to be of the highest quality and were adorned by the people of the Roman Empire.[9] Literacy was also widespread in this region during this time owing to the found presence of the most number of Tamil Brahmi rock inscriptions and pot sherd markings.
The region entered a dark period (with reference to absence of records) in history with the end of the 3rd century BCE. The three crowned Kings of Tamilakam were displaced by the Kalabhras during this time and the region experienced a huge boom of Buddhist and Jain activities.[4] Under the patronage of the Kalabhras, the Jains formed a literary academy in Madurai producing some of the most wonderful literatures in Tamil language. The famous Jain poet Sithalai Sathanar of Manimegalai is thought to have lived in Madurai during this age.
The Pandyan Kingdom was restored in the 6th century CE by the King Kadungon who managed to push off the Kalabhra presence from Tamilakam along with the Pallavas.[4] During this period, the Tamil country was divided up between the Pandyas and Pallavas, with the Pandyas even managing to vassalize the Tulu, Chera, Ay and Venad Kingdoms of the West Coast. Despite a huge Buddhist and Jain presence, the region was one of the epicenters of the Bhakti movement which brought into limelight the cults of Gods Shiva and Perumal with beautiful devotional Tamil compositions.[4] This period also saw significant evolution in material culture with the building of one of the oldest rock cut temples at Pillayarpatti. Many temples like the rock temples of Kazhugumalai were also built during this period.
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